Shere Khan
Shere Khan (voiced by George Sanders, Thurl Ravenscroft, Bill Lee, Jason Marsden and Tony Jay) is the main antagonist of Disney's 1967 animated feature film The Jungle Book, and its 2003 sequel, The Jungle Book 2. A powerful, suave Bengal tiger, Shere Khan had nothing but disdain for his victims. His reputation was such that he needed only to show himself to intimidate the inhabitants of the jungle. His only fears are guns and fire. Personality Shere Khan is a large and powerful tiger who is known for his sadistic, greedy, intimidating, ruthless, and vicious attitude. Everyone including Bagheera knows that he is powerful, especially he himself, resulting in a very arrogant, proud, boastful, and supercilious personality. He is very sophisticated and suave, and shown to be incredibly enthusiastic and polite when he wants to, but becomes incredibly argumentative and dangerous when angered. All animals of the jungle fear Shere Khan and he is often known as the "Lord of the Jungle". The vultures addressed him as "Your Highness". He puts on a cocky, yet friendly face, even when about to kill. His only known fears are man's guns and man's fire which he overcame in the sequel as the climax took place in a temple surrounded in lava, though he didn't seem to care. This fear led to Shere Khan's vow to murder any human that entered his jungle which he has been known to do successfully with the exception of Mowgli. Shere Khan speaks with a British accent and openly thinks highly about himself seeing various other animals namely Colonel Hathi as "ridiculous". Although fellow villain Scar speaks with a British accent Shere Khan has a more gentlemanly, upper class accent saying phrases such as "Good Show". In his youth he spoke with an American accent and was friends with Bagheera, Baloo, Hathi and Prince Louie but at some undetermined time he developed a strong British accent, lost his friends and became an aggressive and ferocious predator. Animated appearances The Jungle Book Shere Khan makes his first physical appearance 2/3rds through the film, where he is stalking a deer as prey. His hunt was ruined when Colonel Hathi came marching by with his herd and scared it away, much to Shere Khan's annoyance. After Bagheera stopped them, Shere Khan eavesdropped on their conversation and was delighted when he heard about Mowgli, who had managed to escape Bagheera in hopes of staying in the jungle; without the panther at his side, the boy was now devoid of protection. After Bagheera and Hathi's herd separated to locate the man-cub, Khan began his own hunt for Mowgli. After searching for some time, he heard Kaa seducing a victim and became suspicious. He grabbed Kaa's tail and got him to come down, subsequently questioning him about Mowgli. Kaa acted strangely while answering his questions, even attempting to hypnotize him, and his suspicious behavior prompted Shere Khan to search his coils for Mowgli. When it appeared that Kaa was truthful, Khan ordered him to act as an informative should the former come across the man-cub. Kaa agreed, and Khan took his leave. Shere Khan's travels eventually led to the wastelands, where he overhears a flock of vultures singing. After investigating the occasion, he found Mowgli and calmly approached the group. Impressed by Mowgli's courage (being that he refused to immediately run at the sight of the tiger), Shere Khan gave the boy ten seconds to run away. Khan became more and more annoyed when he didn't, and eventually lunged for the killing strike. Baloo, Mowgli's friend, intervened by grabbing Khan's tail. As Shere Khan struggled to break free of Baloo's grip, the vultures carried Mowgli to safety. Shere Khan then furiously battled Baloo and nearly killed him. The vultures intervened and stalled the tiger while Mowgli tied a burning branch to his tail. Upon noticing, Khan became terrified and frantically tried to put out the fire, but to no avail, forcing him to flee the wasteland with the burning branch still tied to his tail, burning his back and greatly humiliating him in the process. The Jungle Book 2 Shere Khan returns in the 2003 sequel, where he is determined to kill Mowgli in revenge for humiliating him. He made his way to the Man-Village where Mowgli currently lives, sneaking quietly past the sleeping villagers. He heard one of Mowgli's friends, a girl named Shanti, call out his name and found Mowgli's house. He then waited impatiently for the Man-Cub to show himself. However, he was chased off by the villagers just as he saw Baloo and Mowgli heading into the jungle. He interrogated Kaa on Mowgli's whereabouts; Shere Khan believes Kaa knows where Mowgli is (after hearing him say "Man-Cub"). Though Kaa truthfully has no idea where Mowgli is, Shere Khan doesn't believe him, and continues to threaten the python, which finally forced Kaa to fearfully lie that Mowgli's at the swamp, allowing him to flee. When Shere Khan arrives at the swamp with Mowgli nowhere to be found, he splashes the water in fury after realizing that Kaa lied to him. Shere Khan then gets annoyed by Lucky, the newest part of the vulture gang. However, he gets alerted of Mowgli's actual location from the unwilling Lucky, whom he seemingly killed as revenge for his utter annoyance. With that in mind, Khan encounters Mowgli, Shanti, and Ranjan. He chases down Mowgli to a place of ruins with a moat of lava. After confusing Khan, one of the gongs fell off, revealing Shanti. Mowgli revealed himself and Shere Khan chased them both. In the end, he gets trapped in the lava gorge with a large head on top. Lucky (who somehow survived Khan's attack, but was left bruised) came back and annoyed him even more as retaliation for attacking him, much to Khan's chagrin. Talespin Shere Khan appeared, in a more anthropomorphic form, in the television series TaleSpin as a recurring antagonist (and sometimes an anti-hero). His character, while still villainous, had taken on a more corporate identity, as he serves as the CEO of his very own corporation Khan Industries (founded by his ancestors). He wears a white shirt, a red tie, and a blue suit, but he still goes barefoot. Depicted as a stereotypical businessman that owns his business and a fleet of planes and navy to protect his shipping and business interests worldwide, Shere Khan is extremely ruthless and willing to do anything to make money to expand his business by running smaller companies out of business; at one time in the episode "On a Wing and a Bear", he barged a deal with Don Karnage and his band of Air Pirates to create an artificial oil shortage so he could extort higher prices from the public. However, despite his threatening and villainous presence, Khan holds a sense of morals and honor, as he would be more than willing to aid those who have helped him, proving himself more of an ally than a villain. For one example, in the story arc "Plunder and Lightning", Shere Khan learns of a horrifying event that Karnage and his Air Pirates have created a large gun that can utilize electricity to destroy Cape Suzette, and without hesitation, Khan calls in his navy to protect the city from the Air Pirates at all costs. In another episode "From Here to Machinery", his plane is being attacked by the Air Pirates, and the robot pilot (created by the sleazy Professor Torque) is unable to deviate from its flight programming, causing an arriving Baloo to take action by destroying the robot and taking control of the plane to evade the pirates, an act that has impressed Khan and causing him to develop a certain respect for Baloo's piloting skills. This version of Khan also briefly appeared in Darkwing Duck and Bonkers. Jungle Cubs Shere Khan appeared as a young cub in the animated series Jungle Cubs. In the series, it was shown that Shere Khan was originally friends with Baloo, Bagheera, Hathi and the others. Shere Khan was more of a bully and cocky in the series rather than a dangerous predator. Khan often tagged along with Baloo and friends on many adventures, usually trying to prove he's braver than they are. In the series, Shere Khan is given an American accent, while in other appearances, Khan speaks with a British accent. He seems to be the oldest of the cubs. Live action appearances 1994 Jungle Book Shere Khan also appears in the 1994 live-action film, being portrayed by a real-life tiger. However, Shere Khan is presented as a more sympathetic character in this film. Khan appears rarely and instead serves as a major antagonist (later anti-hero) in the film while a greedy British captain named William Boone (portrayed by Cary Elwes) serves as the main antagonist of the film. Unlike his animated counterpart, Khan refuses to kill for sport, and his sole goal is to protect the jungle from those who break its "laws," namely humans who kill animals for fun instead of food. He is described by Colonel Geoffrey Brydon (the film's narrator) as "the jungle's royal keeper," and by the infamous hunter Buldeo as the "king of tigers." In the beginning of the film, Khan spots Buldeo and two soldiers hunting down several animals for fun, and becomes enraged at this. He proceeds to attack the camp, killing the two soldiers and the local guide Nathoo, who was trying to defend Buldeo, who ungratefully left Nathoo to be mauled to death by the tiger. This event led Nathoo's son Mowgli to be separated from civilization and to be raised by the wolf pack until he became a young adult. Khan appears again when he spotted Boone, Buldeo and their men trying to seek Monkey City (the home of King Louie and the Bandar Log, as well as Louie's treasure guardian Kaa) to find its hidden treasure. Khan then chases down Lieutenant John Wilkins (one of Boone's men) and proceeds to maul him to death in revenge for shooting down Baloo. After Buldeo is buried alive inside Monkey City while Boone gets killed by Kaa, Khan confronts Mowgli as he distrusts all humans in general. He tries to roar at Mowgli to make him run for his life, but Mowgli roars back to stand his ground. At that point, Khan sees Mowgli as a 'fellow creature of the jungle', deciding to spare him and allowing him and the Colonel's daughter Katherine 'Kitty' Brydon to leave the jungle in peace. The Jungle Book (2016) Shere Khan first appears during the drought, when the animals gather to drink during the Water Truce from a watering hole where the animals maintain a truce not to attack each other while quenching their thirst. Upon scenting Mowgli, he threatens to kill him as the man is not allowed to live in the jungle. He also holds the scars on his face as proof of the man's cruel and destructive nature and issues a warning that when the Water Truce ends and the Peace Rock disappears, he will come for the boy and that the wolves should decide how many of their own kind they would be willing to sacrifice to protect a man-cub. He then leaves. This causes Akela and his wolf pack to debate whether to have Mowgli leave the jungle or not, resulting Mowgli to leave the wolf pack with Bagheera to head over to a near-by Man-village. But Shere Khan ambushes them en route and fights Bagheera. He severely injures Bagheera and chase Mowgli, who managed to escape from him with the aid of a herd of buffalo. Shere Khan returns to confront Akela's pack and demand Mowgli be turned over to him, killing Akela by throwing him off a cliff when he learns Mowgli is on his way to the Man-village. He then assumes control of the wolf pack, deducing that Mowgli will return when he learns the news. During Kaa's attempt to hypnotize and devour Mowgli, she reveals that Shere Khan himself is responsible for Mowgli being found by Bagheera, as he killed Mowgli's father (an event that left him with his facial scars and undying hatred for humans). While reigning as the pack's leader, Shere Khan tells stories to the wolf pups about the other creatures of the jungle (in particular, the cuckoo, which preys upon the love of the other mother birds in order to deposit its own egg into their nest, starving them while benefiting its own chick). He directs his story at Raksha, citing her love for Mowgli as a sign of weakness. When Raksha asked why Shere Khan is doing this, he states that he wants Mowgli dead and that he'll be waiting when Mowgli returns. When King Louie informs Mowgli of Akela's death, Mowgli returns to face Shere Khan at the Water Truce with a burning torch stolen from the Man-village. But when he sees how all the animals of the jungle cower in fear at the sight of the fire he holds, he throws away his torch into the water, allowing Shere Khan to attack him. But Baloo, Bagheera and the Wolf pack joins Mowgli in the fight. Despite their numbers and strength, Baloo, Bagheera, and the wolf pack are overpowered by Shere Khan, who then chases Mowgli in the Wood as the jungle is being engulfed in flames thanks to the torch. Mowgli cunningly lures Shere Khan onto a dead fig tree and eventually defeats him by a branch of a dead fig tree which breaks under the tiger's weight, causing him to fall into a pit of fire to his apparent death. The elephants later put out the wildfire by using an irrigation system, putting an end to Shere Khan's tyranny once and for all. Category:Tigers Category:Villains Category:Jungle Book Villains Category:Animals Category:Big Cats Category:Main antagonists Category:Singing villains